Don't be a stretcher case when you fly with easyJet

It was to be a gladsome reunion: Jane Mathews and her husband were flying in from Newcastle with easyJet, their daughter was booked on an easyJet flight from Berlin and the three were to spend a long weekend in Rome.

The day before they were due to return Mathews' husband fell and broke his hip. The hospital consultant in Rome agreed that he could be flown home on a stretcher a day later than originally planned and so, back in the UK, Mathews' son telephoned easyJet to enquire about stretcher transport. He says that the call-centre operative assured him that this was possible, so he booked three new seats for the family and none of the three used their original return tickets.

On the day of departure, an ambulance transported the Mathews from the hospital to the airport where they discovered that easyJet does not, in fact, accept stretcher cases and that the operative who had stated otherwise must have assumed the stretcher was to travel as baggage in the hold.

"The mental anguish that this caused us is indescribable," says Mathews. She and her daughter had to fly home, leaving her husband to undergo a hip replacement in Italy, then return to collect him 10 days later.

Since then easyJet has declined to accept responsibility for any misinformation or to refund the wasted flights. Until the airline's press office was made aware of the situation, that is.

A spokeswoman explains that easyJet's terms and conditions make clear that stretcher cases cannot be accepted and that the company has no record of the Mathews family advising that they would be requiring special services. However, in the interests of compassion and good PR, the company has now decided to refund the cost of the unused flights and the Mathews family should shortly be receiving £200.